10 June 2014

Can an Amazon Smartphone Compete With the iPhone?: Video - Bloomberg: (Allow video to load after clicking play)Amazon.com is planning to introduce a smartphone later this month, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, plunging the world’s largest online retailer deeper into the competitive mobile-device market. Zeb Eckert reports on Bloomberg Television's "First Up." (Source: Bloomberg-June5th)

Amazon's Smartphone Likely To Disappoint Consumers And Shareholders - Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) | Seeking Alpha: "... an Amazon (AMZN) smartphone appears to be ready for release into a very crowded market. While a low-cost, high-end smartphone could certainly increase Amazon's revenue, it seems likely to do little for the company's profitability. Poor value for customers Amazon's heavily customized variant of Android does not adhere to Google's requirements, and as such, is denied access to Google apps and services. This has resulted in Amazon's Android tablets not being able to access the Google Play Store, nor are they allowed to access many essential Google services such as Google Maps. Even worse, key Google APIs, the interfaces programmers use to make apps compatible with Google's services, are not accessible on Amazon Android devices, meaning developers cannot easily port their devices to Amazon's version of Android if they utilize Google's services...."Cable Companies Are Astroturfing Fake Consumer Support to End Net Neutrality | VICE United States: "....To the surprise of probably no one, ISPs are enraged at the prospect of being classified as a utility and are fighting back. But the attacks are not fully transparent. Many of the organizations protesting a move toward classifying ISPs as a utility, which is the only likely option for enacting net neutrality, are funded by the ISP lobby.... A disclosure obtained by VICE from the National Cable and Telecom Association (NCTA), a trade group for ISPs, shows that the bulk of Broadband for America's recent $3.5 million budget is funded through a $2 million donation from NCTA. Last month, Broadband for America wrote a letter to the FCC bluntly demanding that the agency “categorically reject” any effort toward designating broadband as a public utility. It wasn't signed by any internet consumer advocates, as the Sununu-Ford letter suggests. The signatures on the letter reads like a who's who of ISP industry presidents and CEOs, including AT&T's Randall Stephenson, Cox Communications' Patrick Esser, NCTA president (and former FCC commissioner) Michael Powell, Verizon's Lowell McAdam, and Comcast's Brian Roberts...." (read more at link above)Amazon expands middleman role in latest online payments pushReutersThe new service broadens Amazon's profitable role as a middleman for ... Some analysts have said Amazon has been held back in payments because ...

Cybercrime Remains Growth Industry With $445 Billion LostBusinessweekThat's the main message from former U.S. intelligence officials, who in a report today outlined scenarios for how $445 billion a year in trade theft due to computer hackers will worsen. They warned that financial companies, retailers and energy companies are ...